A Battle With the Elements

By Cosmos Mariner, June 26, 2015

1. A Battle Marker

Inscription.
Can you feel the sea wind?
The lighthouse can, too!

For a lighthouse, standing out in the sea spray and storm winds is part of the job description.
For more than a century of working life, Heceta Head Lighthouse has taken a constant barrage from the elements.

Please come inside the oil house to learn more about how Oregon State Parks is working to preserve and restore this important resource.
If the oil house is closed today, visit our website
(www.oregonstateparks.org).

In an age when navigation beacons can be made smaller, cheaper, and easier to maintain, why save the old lighotations?
Imagine this headland without the picturesque buildings and its story.
Historic lightstations are legacies of our past and gifts to the future.

Location. 44° 8.238′ N, 124° 7.677′ W. Marker is near Florence, Oregon, in Lane County. Marker can be reached from Cape Creek Road west of Oregon Coast Highway (U.S. 101) when traveling west. Touch for map. Marker is located near Heceta Head Lighthouse, beside the oil house, on Summer Street, beyond the end of the path leading up from the Heceta Head State Scenic Viewpoint parking lot. Marker is at or near this postal address: 725 Summer Street, Florence OR 97439, United States of America.

Other nearby markers.

By Cosmos Mariner, June 26, 2015

2. Marker detail: Original Red Brick

In an effort to improve the Lighthouse, the exterior was stuccoed in the 1890s.
More recently we have learned that the walls need to breath to prevent mold from growing on the inside.
There windows were also once covered and filled in.

Regarding A Battle With the Elements. National Register of Historic Places (1978)

Also see . . . 1. Restoration.
In 2011, the Oregon Parks and Recreation Department began a major effort to restore the lighthouse.
Years of sea spray, storm winds, and disuse had taken their toll on the beloved landmark.
One of the preservation tasks was to remove cement stucco that had sealed in water so the lighthouse could "breathe" and air out in the damp coastal environment.
The historic metalwork and masonry were restored or replaced, the interior ane exterior were repainted, new windows and a new vent ball (the round knob on top of the lighthouse) were installed, and the interior bricks were cleaned. The lighthouse you see today looks much as it would have in 1894. (Submitted on January 28, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

By Cosmos Mariner, June 26, 2015

3. Marker detail: The Eye

Heceta Head Lightstation, circa 1913-1915.
Though beachgoers could once visit the "Eye," it has since eroded.

2. Heceta Head Lighthouse State Scenic Viewpoint.
Heceta Head is named for Bruno de Heceta, a Spanish navigator and explorer, who surveyed the Oregon coast in 1775. The lighthouse was constructed between 1892 and 1893 and was listed in the National Register of Historic Places in 1978. (Submitted on January 28, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida.)

4. A Battle With the Elements Marker (wide view; marker visible at left side of oil house)

By Cosmos Mariner, June 26, 2015

5. Hecta Head Lighthouse

By Cosmos Mariner, June 26, 2015

6. Interior Spiral Staircase (showing original red brick)

Credits. This page was last revised on February 2, 2018. This page originally submitted on January 25, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. This page has been viewed 34 times since then. Photos:1. submitted on January 25, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. 2, 3, 4, 5, 6. submitted on January 28, 2018, by Cosmos Mariner of Cape Canaveral, Florida. • Andrew Ruppenstein was the editor who published this page.